This beer was much more sweet, then tart. I’ve had the opportunity to taste Goudenband on many occasions and it is usually a mildly tart and refreshing beer. This 2003 version was good, but not at all tart.

It was very interesting to try the “regular” Rodenbach, the 2010 & the 2003 Rodenbach Grand Cru side by side. In terms of tartness I would have to say that Rodenbach was mildly tart, the 2010 Grand Cru was about 2x’s tarter & the 2003 kicked up the tartness factor to a very enjoyable puckering level as it was about 4x more tart then the 2010 Grand Cru.

This one interesting Geuze as it was a bend of 8 different Lambics from 8 different breweries. I feel that as good & enjoyable as this Geuze was, the Geuze you could try from some of those individual breweries would have been better.

Summary of the Oct 2010 Bon Beer Voyage Belgium Beercation (Day 2)

Day 2 Sunday October 24th (BRUGES)

Today after a nice leisurely breakfast on board the barge we all headed out to do a walking tour of Bruges. Our local guide showed us the picturesque historic areas and gave us an insight to life in Bruges both past and present.

Bruges canals

Grote Markt

Bruges

Of course you couldn’t have a tour of Bruges without some beery sites, here are two; De Halve Mann Brewery and Gruuthuse.

De Halve Mann Brewery

Gruuthuse

The Gruuthuse was owned by one of the richest families of Bruges during the medieval times. The old Flemish word ‘gruut‘ was the main ingredient for beer brewing in the Middle Ages. The lords of Bruges had the monopoly on the sale of this very important product and taxed its use. Since everyone was drinking beer, their monopoly made them very wealthy and powerful. (huse = house).

After the walking tour we had lunch on the barge and then were free to explore Bruges on our own until dinner at Den Dyver.

Here are some of the places my wife and I checked out waiting for dinner:

Bierbrasserie Cambrinus

Bierbrasserie Cambrinus: They have a massive beer menu which is bound in a wooden cover. They have about 400 bottled beers and 8 on tap, as well as a fantastic food menu with cuisine ala bière.

Rochefort 10- a Quadrupel with an abv of 11.30% and brewed at the Brasserie de Rochefortat the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy.

I wanted to see the new bar which took over the location vacated by De Zolder, Comptoir des Arts,so we took a short walk just outside of the Grote Markt.

Comptoir des Arts

Comptoir des Arts is a cellar bar which was opened up recently by one of the former bartenders at ‘tBrugs Beertje. It is a jazz & blues bar with over 90 beers & I was excited to see what they had to offer, but we were out of luck, as they were not to open for another hour.

So we walked across the street to go to ‘t Poatersgat, also a cellar barwhich has over 100 bottled beers including a nice assortments of Lambic & Gueuze.

‘t Poatersgat

We walked downstairs and the place was empty, as they just opened up for the day. We wanted to be somewhere that was a little more crowded so we could be more social, so we left and headed to my old standby… Staminee De Garre.

De Garre was packed but we were able to find a table to share with a nice couple from Belgium. So here we got our chance to have a few good beers and enjoy conversation with a couple of locals.

Hanssens Oude Gueuze

We had the Hanssens Oude Gueuze a 6.0%abv Gueuze from Hanssens Artisanall bvba &

Rochefort 10

for the second time today the Rochefort 10, which my wife Ruth just can’t get enough of.

After finishing our beers, conversation and some cheese we had time to head to one more place before dinner.

We went to the beer bar at the back of the massive beer bottle shop 2be, which is only a few steps from Den Dyver.

2be's Wall of Beer

On the way to the bar you pass 2be’s famous wall of Belgian Beers. On this wall they have on display all 780 of the Belgian beers found in the book All Belgium Beers, along with the appropriate glassware. The wall is an amazing sight to see for both the beer geek and the novice.

Belgoo Magus & ?

At the bar we had the Belgoo Magus a Belgian Pale Ale of 6.6% abv brewed by Brasserie La Binchoise and a very unmemorable Belgian Dark Ale, which was apparently so forgetful that its name has slipped my mind.

Den Dyver

Cheers at Den Dyver

We all made it to Den Dyver and were happy to be hungry, as we knew we were going to have a feast. Den Dyver is well known for its cuisine a la bière. They received the 2009 Gold Medal Beer & Gastronomy Award from Bierpassie, Ambiance Magazine & Maxwell Williams.

House Blonde Beer & appetizer plate

We all started off with the House Blonde Beer as an aperitif along with an appetizer plate consisting of 3 items, including a delicious crispy duck!

For our 2nd plate, some chose to have the Artic Char with garden peas, hazelnuts and dill marinated with onion, tangerine oil and chili salt.

This was paired with Duchesse de Bourgogne which is a Flanders Red Ale of 6.2% abv brewed by Brouwerij Verhaeghe.

Bill & Randy at Den Dyver

Carol studies beer pouring before trying it herself during dinner at Den Dyver

Janet, Maria & Rob's 3 Beers at Den Dyver

Our 3rd course was a choice between the Red Snapper prepared with lime, garlic and lemon thyme, served with Bintjes potatoes roasted on pine wood blewit and beetroot or the Baked Pheasant served with Brussels sprouts and chorizo, turnip, onion and gingerbread ratte potatoes. (this is from the menu, don’t ask me to explain what these strange words are! All I know is that it may read weird, but it all tasted amazing!)

While in the café we all had a chance to try the Westvleteren 12, 8 & the Blonde.

In de Vrede bliss

The 3 Westvleteren's (the 12 the Blonde & the 8)

The 12 is a Quadrupel at 10.20% abv,

The 8 is a Dubbel at 8.00% abv and

The Blonde is a Belgian Pale Ale at 5.80% abv.

Cheers from Westvleteren

After tasting these world class beers, some of the group visited the Claustrum, which is an exhibition room where you can get a feel about a monk’s life in the abbey.

We left In de Vrede and walked across the street to the Abbey. We found out that our timing was amazing, since that day, for the 1st time they would be selling 3 packs (one 12, one 8 & one Blonde) to the general public in the area where the cars usually pick up their crates of Westvleteren beer.

Westvleteren 8 crates

Westvleteren price list

Normally you can only buy this beer either by the 6 pack at In de Vrede, if available, (and not on a Saturday, when we were there) or by the crate at the Abbey by making a reservation in advance by phone only. So, to our delight we were able to purchase a few 3 packs from the monks along with some Westvleteren infused chocolates!

Here we were 1st given a tour of the facilities and a history of the brewery by Mous, the 93 year old mother of the brewers.

Mous giving a tour of De Dolle Brouwers

Mous tells us the story of the De Dolle beers

De Dolle Brouwers tour

After this very informative tour we got a chance to sample some of the beers.

Else, the wife of Kris Herteleer, one of the 2 brother brewers, poured us a tasting of Oerbier and Arabier from the tap.

Else describing how the Oerbier is made and how it should taste

Else shows us how to properly pour the beer

Else coaches Ruth on the proper pour

Else & Ruth toast to a successful pour of Oerbier & Arabier

Oerbier is their flagship beer which is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale at 9.5% abv.

Arabier is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale at 7.0% abv.

Bill enjoying his Oerbier

Bill & brewer Kris Herteleer discussing brewing techniques

De Dolle Tasting Room

Else & Maria model the proper “bar wear”

After tasting those 2 beers, we had a couple of surprises. The 1st surprise was a chance to taste the Lichtervelds Blond.

Lichtervelds Blond

Lichtervelds Blond is a Tripel at 9.0% abv and is made almost exclusively for the town of Lichtervelds.

Else explained that 80% of their production of this brew, which is made once per year, is given to the town of Lichtervelds for a festival, with the other 20% kept at the brewery to be sold only for consumption onsite.

Our 2nd surprise came after discussing Christmas beers and questioning when the 2010 Stille Nacht would be available. To our astonishment, Else pulled out of the refrigerator a bottle from their 1st bottling of this year’s version, which was bottled only 3 days prior. She confessed that she and her husband Kris hadn’t even tasted this year’s batch. They were going to save that bottle to taste that evening, but fortunately for us, they were kind enough to share it with us!

The 2010 Stille Nacht- bottled on Oct 20th 2010

Stille Nacht is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale at 12.0% abv.

Bill showing off the bottle of this year’s Stille Nacht

Else tasting the 2010 Stille Nacht

This year’s batch is fantastic and was less sweet then the past few years, which made this one extremely drinkable. I would suggest finding this brew to drink now and to save a few to age.

By the way, Kris is not only a fantastic brewer, but a fabulous artist. Throughout the brewery and bar area you can see his artwork.

Art work by De Dolle brewer Kris Herteleer

Kris showing Ruth some of his art work and his sketchbook of Brugge

After dinner on the barge, which was as good as you would find in a 3 star Michelin restaurant, some of us went on a beer hunting expedition to ‘tBrugs Beertje .

‘t Brugs Beertje

At Brugs Beertje we sat down and shared a few brews and great beery conversation with my friend Filip Geerts, who produces the Belgian Beer Board website, his wife Katrien, and Regnier,who runs the Bruges bottle shop DeBier Tempel .

Friends sharing a few beers at ‘t Brugs Beertje

Before we got a chance to look of the beer menu, Filip & I exchanged early Christmas gifts. I got him the Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout from Cigar City Brewingand he got me the Bush AmbréeTriple. This Belgian Strong Pale Ale has a 12.0% abv and comes from Brasserie Dubuisson Frères. This beer was made for the 75th anniversary of Bush.

Here is a list of beers we sampled at Brugs Beertje:

Guido

Guido -a Belgian Strong Dark Ale of 8.0%abv which is no longer being brewed by Brouwerij Smisje. Filip, in addition to keeping up the Belgian Beer Board, also contributes to the Smisje website.

Our Belgium Private Canal Beercation starts in 70 Days!

As we explore Bruges, Gent, Antwerp, Mechelen and Brussels we will be visiting the following: In de Vrede (Westvletern); De Dolle Brouwers; Gruut; Bosteels; Malheur; Cafe Trappisten (Westmalle); Duvel and Cantillon Brewery as well as many other sites.

Below are excerpts from Bon Beer Voyage’s August Newsletter which features Cantillon Brewery. Enjoy and we hope to see you in the future on a Bon Beer Voyage.

Tours for Belgian and Craft Beer Enthusiasts

August 2010 Newsletter

888-U-Go-Beer (888-846-2337)

Greetings!

Things are really brewing here at BBV! We’ve set a date for our Tampa 2011 trip, done some fine tuning on the Belgium trip, set up a tentative itinerary for Italy and are soon heading out to preview our Ireland trip!

Are you getting the latest info on our trips and other great beer news? Become a fan on Facebook, and don’t forget to check out our this blog, our website and newsletters for up to date trip info and specials!

This month’s newsletter features another of the unique breweries that we will be visiting on our Belgium trip- Cantillon Brewery in Brussels, world famous for their Gueuze.

We hope you enjoy this months newsletter.

Cheers!

Ruth & Mike

Brewery Insider

Previews of Breweries We Visit on our Bon Beer Voyage Tours

Cantillon Brewery, Brussels, Belgium

This month we take a closer look at a very unique brewery that is sure to be one of the highlights of our Belgian Beercation, the Cantillon Brewery, located in Brussels, Belgium. Cantillon was founded in 1900 by the Van Roy-Cantillon family.

The building, which dates back to 1874 was previously a warehouse. In 1900 Paul Cantillon, the son of a brewer, opened the facility as a Gueuze blending facility. It did not begin brewing its own concoctions until the end of 1937. Master Brewer Jean-Pierre Van Roy took over the Cantillon family brewery when his father-in-law gave him an ultimatum. Cantillon told Van Roy that that if he didn’t take it over, he would close. Jean-Pierre obviously rose to the occasion. Today, with Jean Van Roy (son of Jean-Pierre) as the brewer,Cantillon is one of only two lambic breweries still in operation that produces nothing but authentic, unsweetened, ufiltered, unpasteurized lambic and is currently the only active brewery in Brussels which is open to the public.

The brewery produces Gueuze (now close your eyes real quick and tell me how to spell that again?), Lambic, Faro and Kriek in the same tradition that it has for over 100 years.

Lambic is a beer which is spontaneously fermented. This means that instead of having yeast added to it, it takes advantage of the wild yeast in the air. The particular area in Belgium in which Cantillon is located is very well known for its particular strains of wild yeast. The building has numerous small holes in it, allowing the yeast to enter.

When visiting, in my opinion the coolest part(no pun intended) is the cooling tun in the attic. This is a huge open topped copper pan where the wort is not only cooled, but gains all the natural yeasts that are floating around in the air; it’s kind of like when we used to do those experiments in science class with petri dishes!

The cooled wort is then put in old oak or chestnut barrels where it ferments for 1-3 years before it is blended, then rebottled immediately so the second fermentation can take place creating the gueuze. Alteratively, fruit is added to create Kriek(cherries) or Framboise(raspberries) as well as a unique grape lambic.

For the most part, Gueuze is made up of a blend of lambics of different ages. Cantillon mixes theirs fom their own lambics, while some other breweries wil mix lambics from varying breweries.

Kriek is made from the Schaarbeek variety of cherries steeped in lambic, pits and all. It dissoves and ferments for 4-5 months during which time the pits dissolve as well, imparting some nuttiness to the flavor along with the cherry. The Framboise is lambic steeped with raspberries (as well as a small amount of cherries). The Framboise only takes about 3 months to be ready to go.

The brewery appears as old as it really is! There are, of course, dust and cobwebs; this is because the building purposely has the holes in it to welcome the wild yeast that makes their mouth watering products possible. They have not changed much over the years, since they feel that this helps to ensure the authenticity and quality of their beer.

Interestingly enough, 68% of Cantillon’s beer is currently exported. It seems America and Japan are keeping them in business! Apparantly the trend toward a taste for sweeter beverages, such as Coca Cola, has left the sour gueuze unpopular locally. Fortunately for us, there remains and continues to grow a sour loving, specialty seeking, beer enthusiast contingent who for now, help Cantillon remain viable and a must see mecca for people like us!

As one web reviewer so eloquently commented: “It is the center of the gueuze universe”! We agree- and are looking forward to sharing this historic brewery with all of you that are joining us in October!

Have you reserved your space yet?

DON’T MISS THE BOAT

Limited Space Still Available!

Don’t Miss The Opportunity to…

Try These and Endless Other Great Beers!

See These Awesome Sights!

Experience These Unique Bathrooms 🙂

Enjoy…Unique regional brews in some of the most historic and best beer-stocked pubs.

Experience…the historical and fascinating cities, including Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent & Brussels with guided tours as well as free time to explore on your own.

Visit…Beer Lovers Meccas, such as Westvleteren, Westmalle and Cantillon!

Savor…Cuisine a la biere! (That’s the fancy french term for food cooked in beer!)

Relax…it’s your vacation! No driving! No figuring out where to eat or how to get from one place to the next! Unpack only once on our incredibly comfortable private passenger barge and get ready for the beercation of a lifetime!

Beer Safari News

Great News! We’re heading back to Tampa for More Tours, Tastings and Fun!

More Great News – We’ve scheduled this year’s

Tampa Beer Safari Weekend over

President’s Day Weekend!

February 18-20, 2011,

This could be a really nice Valentine’s giftto give the beer lover in your life! ! And if you have the time to make it a real holiday weekend, we can even help you arrange for additional nights before or after the tour at the hotel at special BBV rates. Details coming soon…watch your emails and our Facebook page for up to the date info and be the first to register – space will be limited!

Note: This beer had a nice piney and citrusy nose. The taste was like the nose, you get a mild piney and a sweet citrus taste up front, which then lead to a refreshing and yet mild grapefruit rind taste. At 5.2% abv this would make a great session beer as it is extremely drinkable.

I picked this beer up in Italy a few weeks ago while I was in Greve in Chianti, Tuscany Italy. I happened to run into a great craft beer bar, La Birrateca di Greve. This place has an awesome beer list, they had at least 65 different high end Belgian’s (sitting in a cooler near the entrance), 35 American’s including Port Brewing, Great Divide, Hoppin’ Frog, Founders, yes even Breakfast Stout and about 65 others including the BrewDog and Mikkeller line-up. Mikela, the barmaid and part owner of this establishment was very knowledgeable about her beers and craft beers in general. She did a great job of describing the 2 dozen or so local Italian made brews to me. When I asked her what her favorite beer was, she picked this beer, A.F.O. She said she was a hophead and this was one of the hoppiest Italian made beers she’s had. I then asked her if it was as hoppy as some of the Californian beers she’s had. She said “no no, not that hoppy, but for Italy, it is very hoppy”. Since I trusted her judgment, I’m glad I did, I picked up this beers and a few other, which I will get to in a future post.

Ruth & Mikela in La Birroteca Greve in Chianti

On the Label: Consume by Dec 30, 2010. Rest of label is in Italian so here is the label for you to translate yourself. 🙂 (sorry, even though I’m Italian, I don’t know much of the language)

With the help of Goggle Translator : High fermentation beer a free interpretation of Pale Ale. Intense color of copper, is characterized by generous hopping that involves the use of more than ten hops from different backgrounds (including American Chinook, Cascade and Simcoe giving it smells of citrus and tropical fruit) and a caramel character with delicate toasting that admirably balances the bitterness.

A beer that I have always longed for: dedicated to the Ales obsessed like me.

The AFO was the second beer that we produced, VIÆMILIA output at the same time, when we got the license for the sale in late March 2007. I remember that time we had a party in the center of Parma in the small bar of our great friend Flavio, we serve the AFO pump and had an extraordinary success: there was even a Welsh told me very proud to have drunk 14 pints! The history of beer dates back to January 2006 when for the first time I came in contact with the character so new (to me) irresistible and American hops, but I realized early on that Pale Ale in my dreams I wanted to express something that went well beyond this, since the creation of a bouquet, complex, fascinating and never has been my usual challenge. Therefore traveling between England and Germany, visiting growers and hop varieties also experiencing very far (New Zealand) have carried out a search in the olfactory area of hops that perhaps is not quite finished (without prejudice to the unique character of the AFO that will always remain so).

South Florida Beer Social Media Round 2 was put together and Emceed by Ed Roberts, Assistant Manager & “beer educator” from the Ft. Lauderdale Total Wine & More store and gracefully hosted by Chung of the Coffee District. The purpose of this event was to have local South Floridian craft beer lovers who are knowledgeable in social media and/or of the local beer scene to brainstorm on how to improve the awareness of craft beer in the South Florida region, which would ultimately make this a very desirable area for craft beer drinkers.

Besides brainstorming, the 20 people who attended contributed 35 beers to be tasted including some great homebrews and different vintages of the same beer. As it turned out the brainstorming took a back seat after we were about half way down the list.

Brewery :Conte di Campiglia San Godenzo, Italy. They have been producing beer since 2005. Besides beer they produce wine, grappa, olive oil, jams and marmalades. This will be one of the places we will visit when we do our Bon Beer Voyage Tuscan Beer, Wine, Gourmet Food and Shopping tour in the Spring of 2011.

The above beer was paired with Jam which was made with the above Etrusca from Conte Di Campiglia.

The Tampa Weekend Beer Safari was a great time! We visited 2 brew pubs, 2 breweries, a great craft beer bar, had a 4 course gourmet beer paired meal at a really great steakhouse and actually saw a few local sights beyond the beer!

We started out Friday evening getting to know each other during Happy Hour.

A few of us at Happy Hour

We all got a chance to sample Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, Southampton Beer de Garden and Brasserie Lefèbvre’s Blanche De Bruxelles

After the happy hour we walked into the heart of Ybor City to meet our paranormal and haunting expert, “Miss Prudence Fipwhistle”.

"Miss Prudence Fipwhistle"

She entertained us during a one-hour ghost walk tour of Ybor City, one of North America’s most interesting – and haunted – neighborhoods. This tour ended at the Tampa Bay Brewing Co. where we had our evening meal.

Tampa Bay Brewing Company was founded in 1996 and is a family business, with mother and son serving as general manager and brewmaster respectively. Their on-site brewery is equipped to produce up to twelve tap beers and several cask-conditioned ales on a 10bbl step-infusion brewing system.

Tampa Bay Brewing

As a matter of fact, 12 of their 16 serving tanks used to hold the beer at the famous Bass Ale Brewery in England. Before dinner we were given a tour of their brewing facility by Dave, the brewer.

Tampa Bay Brewing

Here, you can see some of our guests enjoyed a pre-dinner brew.

Tampa Bay Brewing

After the tour we had a tasty beer inspired dinner. For the 1st course we had a choice of either their famous Beer Cheese Soup or the Onion Porter Soup; both were paired with their Red Eye Amber Ale.

Dinner at Tampa Bay Brewing

For the main course we had the choice of the Iron Rat Stout Shepherd’s Pie or the Brewhouse Barleywine Meatloaf; this course was paired with the Iron Rat Stout. For dessert we had the Beignets served with Moosekiller Anglaise paired with the MooseKiller Barleywine– yummy!

After dinner, some of our guests were ready to return to their room to relax and get a good night sleep, while some were raring to go on a small beer hunting expedition to New World Brewing Co. In the courtyard of New World Brewing, there was a great acoustic guitarist playing. This made for a perfect backdrop to enjoy our beers.

New World Brewery

After discussing everyone’s favorite style of beer, as the beer guide, I suggested Harry & Robert order a Victory Prima Pils and Debbie an Old Rasputin. I had an Allagash White & I’m not sure what Ray ordered, but as you can see, he apparently enjoyed it!

New World Brewery

On Saturday morning our first stop was Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is known as the Sponge Capital of the World,

so we visited the Famous Spongeorama to see the Sponge Diving Museum….this is a totally kitsch stop for those into old Florida tourism type stuff. And we mean OLD Florida, this place could really use an update, but then again, that would take the fun out of it! Nothing to be taken too seriously, that’s for sure! Tarpon Springs is also Florida’s own Greek heritage village, so we stopped by Hellas, an authentic Greek restaurant for some of their mouth watering pastries!

Hellas in Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs

We then took a stroll along the waterfront and specialty shops, where –hey, what do you know they were selling authentic Greek beers!

Tarpon Springs

What a way to start the day!

Then we were off to meet our friend Bob Sylvester and see his brewing set up at Saint Somewhere Brewing Company.

Saint Somewhere Brewing Company

Boy did we luck out! We were fortunate enough to be visiting Saint Somewhere on the day they were bottling Saison Anthene! Here, they bottle the old fashion way, by hand. It was a thrill to watch them first sanitize, and then fill the bottle, cork it, add the cage, put on the label and finally watch them box it.

Saint Somewhere Brewing bottling of Saison Anthene

Before we watched them bottle, Bob showed us around his facility and explained his brewing process and told us a little about his beers.

Saint Somewhere Brewing Co.

Filling up on the Saint Somewhere's Flemish Red

Lucky dogs that we are- he also opened up two special kegs for us to try! One was a Flemish Red, which he does not bottle for sale. Too bad! This was a blend of 2 different year beers, one a year old and the other fresh. While drinking his Flemish Red it reminded me of a Rodenbach Grand Cru, it was delicious!!! His other beer on tap was a “hopped” up version of his Saison Anthene, again this is a version of the beer which is not bottled so na na if you weren’t with us! (Sorry, couldn’t resist!!)

Saison Anthene with Brettanomyces Claussenii

We also got a chance to taste the “regular” version of Saison Anthene and a special bottle made only for Redlight Redlight in Orlando with Brettanomyces Claussenii. This is a different stain of Brett than used in their normal bottle, which gives it a bit more tartness. Bob was also generous enough to share with us his latest creation, Pays de Soleil, which should be hitting the South Florida market any day now.

Mike and Ruth from Bon Beer Voyage along with Anne and Bob Sylvester of Saint Somewhere Brewing

Everyone had a great time & didn’t want to leave,

We don't have to leave Saint Somewhere, do we?

but we had to let Bob get back to bottling. So we left Tarpon Springs to head over to Florida’s Scottish heritage town, Dunedin. Here we visited Dunedin Brewery for a tour, a tasting and lunch.

Dunedin Brewery

Fermenting since 1996 and still going strong, Dunedin Brewery handcrafts all of their own ales from their Piper’s Pale Ale to their Apricot Wheat.

What's on Tap at Dunedin Brewery

They also have a great menu including the most awesome Pacific Coast Fish Tacos you will find east of Baja! With great atmosphere, great food and 9 ales brewed year round as well as 5 or more seasonal offerings throughout the year, this was one great lunch stop!

Dunedin Brewery

Travis, the general manager, gave us a lesson on the brewing process & showed us around the brewery

Dunedin Brewery

Dunedin Brewery

including introducing us the beer tanks named Ginger, Mary Ann & Lovey, which of cause are the females of Gilligan’s Island. After our tour we were all thirsty and Travis was prepared as he offered us all samples of their Wheat, Apricot Wheat, Red Ale and I.P.A.

Dunedin Brewery

Dunedin Brewery

After the tasting we all had lunch, I chose to have the famous Pacific Coast Fish Taco and paired that with their delicious Double IPA “the Rock”. Before we left I made sure I had a chance to try their Bière de Café, which was an extremely smooth brew & you could easily mistake this beer for an iced coffee, boy was it good!!!

Dunedin Brewery

Dunedin Brewery

Dunedin Brewery

Having fortified ourselves, we set off to Cigar City Brewery

Cigar City Brewery

(who, incidentally, just added 5 gold medals along with a silver and bronze to their growing collection of awards!)

5 Golds, 1 Silver & 1 Bronze Metal

for a tour and tasting in their new tasting room.

Cigar City Brewery was founded by beer columnist and Tampa native Joey Redner in the summer of 2007. Since its inception CCB has been guided by Joey’s passion for both great beer and the city of his birth.

With the creative input and expertise of Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup award winning brewer Wayne Wambles, Cigar City Brewing endeavors to make world class ales and lagers which celebrate the rich heritage and traditions that make Tampa one of the world’s most unique cities.

Cigar City Jai Alai

Joey showed off the new tasting room to us in addition to our brewery tour.

What's on Tap at Cigar City

He explained their brewing process and showed us the “cedar” chips they use to make their Humidor series beer.

Cigar City

Cigar City

He also gave us some insight to the future expansion of their facilities, told us about their new “hopless” beer and informed us that the Humidor series Jai Alai will now be a yearly brew instead of a one time only brew. After this tour Joey offered us a tasting of their Bonita Brown Ale & Jai Alai IPA,

A tasting at Cigar City

Joey giving us a few samples

then he surprised us all with a bottle of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout to share.

Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout

I ended up buying a glass of Marshall Zhukov’s so I could compare the taste of that to Hunahpu’s . All 4 brews I had were extremely delicious.

Our Group Tour at Cigar City

We all could have hung out in the tasting room all night, BUT we had to get back to the hotel to get ready for our big night out at Fleming’s Steakhouse.

Fleming’s is reknowned for their stylish contemporary dining, awesome steaks, and their fantastic wine list…but boy, they can do some magic with good brews as well! We had the good fortune of having a 4 course beer paired gourmet dinner created especially for our Beer Safari by the chef at Fleming’s, who, as luck would have it, is a beer enthusiast himself! Just look at the menu we had!!